


Day 061

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [61]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:14:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22981588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [61]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 1





	Day 061

Cullen held his shield forwards, keeping his sword hidden behind. From here, he could maneuver through several striking positions without allowing his opponent to see where he would strike. Keran, on the other side of the ring, held his sword high, ready to bring it down in a powerstroke. Effective, yet predictable. Cullen held his ground, templars tended to rush in quickally, useful when facing a mage who was more deadly the farther away you got, but foolish in a hand-to-hand fight.

Keran was not in a patient mood and Cullen did not have to wait long for the boy to rush in. Karen dropped his sword down towards Cullen’s helmet but the more experienced soldier neatly stepped to the side and raised his shield, letting his opponent’s blade glise off and to the side. At the same time he thrust forwards with his own sword, forcing his opponent back. 

Keran was quick to recover but Cullen didn’t give him time to prepare another attack. The Captain thrust his shield towards Karen’s face. The boy easily avoided the attack but the point was to keep him focused on the Cullen’s shield, while his sword swung forwards taking the lad in the midsection. There was a resounding clang as the training sword knocked into the thick platemale of the templars.

Karen tried to repost with a strike to Cullen’s head but the captain needed only to lean back slightly to be out of the boy’s reach. Cullen surged forwards with two quick striked and Keran was against the fence of the training ring.

“You won’t beat me if you can’t hit me,” Cullen said, backing off to let the boy recover. Keran lunged forwards, letting emotion guide his sword. A deadly mistake in a real fight but today, the training was secondary to the emotional catharsis. It had been Keran’s first proper fight with an abomination. Maker knew it wasn't his first encounter with one, but Keran had never had to kill someone he had known as a mage first. Fortunately no others had been seriously hurt in the incident. Cullen didn’t think the order needed another version of him in their ranks.

Cullen let Keran tier himself out trying to find a way past his defenses. They went at it again and again for almost thirty minutes, stopping only for mouthfuls of water. When Cullen decided it was time to stop, he ended it definitively. Keran dropped a diagonal strike towards Cullen’s sword-arm shoulder and he caught it on his shield, immediately pressing in and down, trapping the boy’s sword beneath a sheet of metal. Cullen could have done anything at that point but he only gave the boy a tap on the head with his sword. Enough to let the boy know that Cullen could have killed him had he wanted to. 

The two templars stripped off their armor and sat together a moment as comrades, pouring buckets of water over their sweat-soaked selves.

“The dreams had been getting better,” Keran mumbled, softly enough that Cullen could have pretended he hadn't heard. It was the unspoken rule of how to broach difficult subjects in the order.

“They never go away,” Cullen replied. “There will be better and worse nights. They come less often if you go to bed exhausted.” Keran looked as though he wanted to say more, but wasn’t quite sure he should. 

“Out with it,” Cullen said, when the silence became unbearable.

“They say lyrium helps… if you take enough.”

“It doesn't,” Cullen lied. “You are a smart templar, something the order has a shortage of. Don’t be in a hurry to lose that to the blue.”

Keran nodded sadly and the men towelled off and returned to the barracks. It was late and Keran went to the bunk to sleep. Not Cullen, there was more work to be done that night. In Kirkwall there was always more to do.


End file.
